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This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and ¿ªÔÆÌåÓý.

Gov. Phil Scott has vetoed a bill that would have regionalized and privatized Vermont’s homelessness response system.

In a message to the Legislature late Wednesday, Scott argued that the bill “does not adequately reduce the size or cost� of the motel voucher program. The five-term Republican has called for the downsizing of the emergency housing benefit for years.

“Rather than continuing to fund a program that isn’t good for those in it, I believe we should focus on real solutions like building additional shelter capacity and requirements to engage in work, training, and treatment for those who need it,� Scott wrote.

The bill, , would have in fact dissolved the statewide motel voucher program as it currently exists. After a year of planning, it would have handed over funding and decision-making power for emergency shelter to five regional anti-poverty nonprofits and the statewide domestic violence organization.

Those same groups would have had authority over funds the state currently doles out to build and operate local shelters and run homelessness prevention programs. The state would have retained an oversight role.

The change would have marked a fundamental pivot in how Vermont approaches homelessness, which since before the COVID-19 pandemic began amid a crushing housing shortage and rising housing costs.

The bill’s Democratic supporters in the Legislature argued it would have created a more efficient and integrated support system for Vermont’s growing homeless population � and allowed the state to stop relying on motel and hotel rooms to shelter the bulk of unhoused Vermonters, in the years since pandemic-era federal aid for shelter dried up.

Scott, a Republican, has long pushed for the motel voucher program’s expansion to end, arguing that it is too expensive � and ineffective � to continue on the state’s dime. Lawmakers have haltingly agreed to winnow down its scale over the last few years, setting new restrictions on eligibility that have resulted in .

H.91 was the closest lawmakers and officials had come to overhauling the motel voucher system � and the broader state apparatus for responding to homelessness.

Glenn Russell

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VTDigger

Early on this legislative session, officials from Scott’s administration had expressed general support for the restructuring H.91 envisioned. In some ways, the proposal to shift the motel voucher program to regional community action agencies .

But in the waning weeks of the session, officials and lawmakers , from concerns around the costs of the new regionalized approach to disagreements over how quickly it should happen.

Legislators attempted to make concessions to the administration as they finalized the bill, lowering an appropriation meant to aid the transition to the new system this year and striking provisions that expressed an intent to tie future emergency housing spending to recent years� budgets � creating a possibility for the state to spend less in the future.

Those changes weren’t enough to earn Scott’s signature. In his veto message, Scott claimed “this bill proposes we spend millions of dollars more� than the $44 million budgeted for the motel program last year. He noted that, by comparison, the state appropriated $5 million for motels in 2019.

Advocates for unhoused Vermonters decried Scott’s decision.

“Throughout the coming years, Vermonters will lose access to their permanent housing vouchers due to upheaval in Washington and inhumane policies,� wrote Brenda Siegel, executive director of End Homelessness Vermont, in a statement. “Governor Scott has left vulnerable Vermonters with no options, no solution and no hope.�

More: For one Vermont family, losing their shot at a housing voucher could mean reentering homelessness

Both the House and Senate passed the final versions of H.91 with party-line votes. Without a Democratic supermajority, lawmakers are unlikely to have the votes to override the governor’s veto. Staff for legislative leadership did not offer details on their next steps forward Wednesday evening.

Scott’s decision leaves the motel program operating at its status quo � for all participants and a cap on the number of rooms in use during the warmer months of the year � for the foreseeable future.

And it leaves Vermont’s political leaders that much further apart on addressing the state’s worsening homelessness problem.